Fazenda

Fazenda, large plantation in Brazil, comparable to the slave-based plantations of the Caribbean and the United States. In the colonial period (16th–18th century) the plantation owners (fazendeiros) ruled their estates, and the black slaves and freemen who worked them, with virtually no interference from the colonial authorities. Fazendeiros were usually born in Brazil of Portuguese ancestry. Often they were absentee landlords who took up residence in some town in the region. Fazendas were found throughout Brazil; during the colonial period they were concentrated primarily in the northeastern region, where sugar was produced, shifting during the 19th century to coffee production in the southeastern region.

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...their staple rather than wheat, which grew poorly in much of the region. Two types of agricultural establishments emerged: roças, which were food farms or truck gardens near towns, and fazendas, or export enterprises. The last were mainly sugar plantations, which were not yet very prosperous, even though conditions for sugar growing and transport were ideal in many places, because...

...population of Mexico was thus entangled in the peonage system. The counterparts of the hacienda in the Río de la Plata (Argentina and Uruguay) region and in Brazil are the estancia and the fazenda, respectively. Hacendados constituted a squirarchy, in whose hands were the reins of local government. In Bolivia until 1952, hacendados had retained many of the privileges...